Scores of GCSE papers lost in exam board blunder

Pupils' work was lost due to a 'series of blunders' at an Essex school (file photo)

A top girls' grammar school branded an exam board 'incompetent' today after 79 coursework assignments went missing.

Colchester County High School says the Edexcel board then threatened to record the students as absent for that piece of work and give them zero marks.

Head teacher Elizabeth Ward also hit out at Royal Mail for failing to help locate the lost parcels - and then offering 24 stamps as compensation.

However Edexcel disputed the allegations, claiming the work was 'not lost' and pupils would get their results as normal.

The row appears to stem from delays in transporting the work between two different markers.

It will shake confidence in the examination system at a time of concern over delays and unreliable marking in national tests for 11 and 14-year-olds.

Earlier this year it emerged a GCSE music paper taken by up to 12,000 pupils had the answers printed on the back.

Problems at Colchester County High began when staff sent off 79 physics and chemistry coursework assignments to markers using the address labels Edexcel had sent.

This formed part of the 'moderation' process, where samples of coursework marked by teachers are checked by external markers to ensure consistency across the country.

But several days later Edexcel contacted the Essex school - which routinely posts among the best GCSE and A-level results in the country - to say the address labels had been wrong and the work needed to go to a different marker.

But two parcels containing the assignments 'were completely missing', a school spokeswoman said.

She added that Edexcel 'refused to take any responsibility' for finding the parcels.

She said it was the second year running that Edexcel had given a wrong address. In 2007 music coursework completed by 24 pupils went missing.

This year, staff had to provide further samples of work by examination candidates to avoid them being recorded as absent.

'Following a series of blunders by the examination board Edexcel and The Royal Mail, 79 pieces of GCSE examination work by Colchester students have gone missing and the only compensation on offer to the school and its students is two books of 12 first-class stamps,' said the spokeswoman.

'Edexcel then threatened not to accept the school's marks for the 79 pieces of missing work, and said that each student would be marked absent for that particular examination entry.

'Fortunately, the school was able to provide further samples of students' work, in order to prevent Edexcel penalising the students for the examination board's own error.'

She added: 'This is the second year running that Edexcel have instructed the school to send students' work to an incorrect address... (Last year) it turned out that the name and address given to the school by Edexcel was that of an examiner who had resigned from the examination board more than a year before.'

It is understood that this year, there were delays in moving the scripts from the first marker to the second, correct, examiner.

A spokeswoman for the board said: 'The school's work has been moderated and students have final marks for the first batch of coursework sent and will receive their results as normal on results day.

'This work is not lost. We can confirm that this school did have a change of moderator. They were contacted on the 28th April informing them of this.'

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said the package had been correctly delivered, adding: 'Royal Mail has delivered this mail to the address on the envelope. That is what Edexcel has told us.'